Personal computer systems (PCs) such as IBM personal computers, operate due to the interaction of hardware and software components. The hardware for a PC consists of a system unit having a single system processor, a display monitor, a keyboard, one or more diskette drives, a fixed disk storage, and an optional printer. The software which takes advantage of this hardware is generally classified into operating system software and applications software.
From the earliest personal computer systems, it was recognized that the operating system software would be of utmost importance. Realizing that market acceptance was a primary goal, IBM chose a rather simple text oriented operating system which was suited for the level of hardware technology of the time. The operating system chosen was named DOS which is the acronym for disk operating system. The limited objectives for DOS at the time were non-cryptic commands, English language error messages (instead of error codes), small memory size (12 Kbyte) and reasonable performance. DOS served well for earlier machines, but as memory and hardware prices declined and performance increased a more user friendly intuitive operating system was needed. Beginning in 1986, IBM started development of a graphical user interface (GUI) designed to mask the complexity of the hardware technology advances and present to the user an intuitive, flexible, and easy-to-use system. This operating system was named OS/2.
With GUI systems, the computer system is controlled using a pointing device such as a mouse. The pointing device controls the location of a pointer, or floating cursor, that appears on the screen of the computer's display device. Elements on the screen such a icons may be manipulated using the mouse. Icons are graphical representations of various objects such as disk drives, applications, or documents, and windows. In this way, the graphical user interface provides a more intuitive facility for interacting with the computer operating system than the conventional command-line interface. The icons and windows of the GUI serve as references or pointers to the data or system resources and enable the user to interface with the computer in a simpler, logical manner which mimics the real world.
Graphical user interfaces, including OS/2, typically provide the user with the ability to cut and paste objects from within a document. The document can contain any combination of text, graphics, or data, all generally referred to as objects. The user can block a portion of this document by designating a beginning and end locations for the blocked portion. A cut command is entered, thereby removing the blocked portion from the document and storing it in a scratchpad memory. The blocked portion can then be deleted or pasted at another location in the same document or another.
With past graphical user interfaces, the cut object was hidden from the user's view. It could be retrieved by inspection of a scratchpad memory. However, this required additional commands and time. Instead most user's simply try to remember the exact content of the cut object. Thus, the prior methods of cutting and pasting information were prone to error. A need exists for a method of cutting and pasting information that provides the user a constant visual reminder of the cut material during the cut and paste operation.